Hispania forced to sit out final day

Hispania Racing is set to go into the opening round of the new F1 season without any running with its F111 after the planned debut run for the car was cancelled.

The team unveiled the car on Friday at Catalunya but was prevented from hitting the track as the dampers, which were being flown into the circuit, were stuck in customs.

Hispania had hoped to have the parts at the circuit in order to run on the final day, but then announced on Friday evening that the dampers hadn't been released by authorities, which will prevent the car from doing any running.

“Unfortunately we could not get the dampers out of customs,” team boss Colin Kolles said. “The result of this is that we can't run tomorrow. This is life and we will overcome this problem.”

How much running would have actually been possible if the dampers had been at the circuit remains to be seen, with heavy rain at the circuit meaning that none of the teams have ventured out to set a lap time as of 11am local time.

Mercedes, Williams, Ferrari and McLaren are all due to test today on the final day of pre-season running before the teams head to Australia.